


Golden Love

by oxymora (oxymoron)



Category: Nescafé Gold Blend Commercials
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 02:11:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17051096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxymoron/pseuds/oxymora
Summary: “It sounds a bit like we’ve been living out a rather dramatic storyline of EastEnders, doesn’t it?”





	Golden Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladysugarquill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysugarquill/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, ladysugarquill!

It was the type of Saturday morning where you couldn’t be bothered to get out of your pyjamas, so Sharon hadn’t. From her kitchen window, the outside world looked grey, slightly out of focus through steady sheets of rain, and thoroughly uninviting. Someone was out there, though, hurrying through the rain towards her front lawn in a rather comically hunched sprint. And now the doorbell was ringing. Sharon sighed, put down her coffee mug, closed her dressing gown a little tighter, and went to open the door. After all, there wasn’t anyone else to do it.

The man -- tall, about her age but handsomely so, and very wet -- had already started talking when she opened the door.

“Excuse me, I’m  _ so  _ sorry to disturb you, but could I just borrow some coffee? I just moved in next door, and the movers must have displaced mine somewhere and if I can’t get a cup at some point i’m going to --  _ Sharon _ ?”

It couldn’t be him. Out of all the gin joints in all the world, she thought wryly. And on a morning when I’m not even wearing my make-up. How old is this dressing gown? Fifteen years at least; I was wearing it when Maura had the flu and threw up all over it that one time. She forced a smile. Attack was the best defense.

“Good morning Tony. Why don’t you come on in, I have a pot brewing in the kitchen. Or is there someone waiting for you back home?”

He looked, she decided, more flustered than she possibly could. Plus, there were the wet clothes to be counted against her less-than-formal attire. 

“Waiting? No, no. I’m all alone, old bachelor and all that… Sharon, what are you doing here?”

“I live here. As do you now, apparently. Do come in, there’s a drought!”

He seemed to recollect himself, stepping inside and closing the door behind him with an apology. Sharon led him into the kitchen, pulled another mug from the shelf.

“Do sit down, please! Still black, no sugar?”

He nodded, mumbling a thank you. And then they were sitting there in silence, studying each other. At the time, she had thought he was the most handsome man she’d ever met, Sharon remembered. He still looked unfairly good, wet hair, slight hint of a pouch and all. His thoughts seemed to be running along the same lines.

“How long has it been? Thirty years? You certainly don’t look it!”

“Twenty-six since we split up, I believe. And oh, come on, don’t sugarcoat. I have plenty of wrinkles and my share of extra pounds to show for the years. It’s all right, I’ve made my peace with them.”

He looked down into his coffee cup. “And you still make good coffee. No Gold Blend anymore, though, I see.”

She shrugged. “My ex husband couldn’t stand the stuff.”

He exhaled. “So you did get married. I always wondered, you know.”

Apparently, they were done with the small talk. He’d always been straightforward. She remembered how he’d told her that it wasn’t working one morning and had been gone by nightfall. 

“I did. Got married, moved to the suburbs, had a daughter and got a dog.” Good old Terry, God rest his soul.

“The whole package, I see.” 

“Yes quite. Then he cheated on me with his secretary and I filed. Maura’s off to uni now and the dog died last year. So, that’s me. What about you? I never took you for the type to leave the city.”

“Oh, who can afford the city these days?”

She raised an eyebrow. The Tony she’d known definitely could. He shrugged.

“Well, yes, at one point. I lost quite a bit of money in the whole Black Wednesday debacle, you see. Plus, I’m not getting any younger. It’s quieter out here, and I need space for my art collection.”

“I see.”

They were quiet. She didn’t quite know how to pick up the conversation again, and neither did he, it seemed. Finally, he put down his cup and got up. 

“Well, I’ll be off, then. Thank you for the coffee. No, don’t get up, I’ll see myself out!”

Sharon stayed in her seat at the kitchen table. She watched him through the window. The rain had lessened somewhat and she could see him quite clearly, crossing her front lawn and moving briskly towards what she now knew was his house. Neighbours once more. When she could no longer see him, she stood up and cleared away their cups. He hadn’t quite finished his.

***

Tony was there at Gladys’s next dinner party, and Sharon felt immediately reminded of another neighbour’s party thirty years ago. She was more prepared this time, though. So was he, quite obviously. He pulled out her chair graciously, they both acknowledged their acquaintance to the other guests (Gladys seemed disappointed, Sharon was sure she’d been looking forward to claiming Tony as  _ her  _ prized discovery), and the setting prevented them from having to talk directly to each other. Then came the obligatory run-ins at the supermarket, the pharmacy, and the post office. By the time her car broke down on the highway and Tony pulled up next to her to offer her a ride home, she was quite inured to his presence in her life again -- in fact, she was rather glad to see him, and even more glad to slip into his sleek BMW and leave her car to the mechanic. They talked easily with one another, and were halfway home before she noticed that they were flirting. She couldn’t even say who’d started it. She hadn’t consciously flirted in years, but when she graciously let him help her out of the car and threw him a smile and a thank you over her shoulder, she felt that she still had it. It felt good to be admired. After Charles left, with Maura just entering public school and the house only half finished, she hadn’t had time for any of that, and then she’d spent the next years navigating motherhood and work and paying debts and all the other mundane tasks of everyday life, until Maura took off and she’d been all alone with Terry, until he’d left her too. She hadn’t ever felt lonely, but maybe she had been.

That night, after picking her car up at the mechanic, she stopped at Tesco’s and then drove straight over to Tony’s house before she could stop herself, clutching the gift bag tightly in front of her. He answered after the second ring, clad in a bathrobe. She could hear a female voice in the background, calling for him to hurry back. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is this a bad time? It seems you have company...” _That_ kind of company, by all apearances. This was so embarrassing.

“Sharon!" She could see the flush spreading from his face down his neck and the part of his chest that was exposed from the bathrobe. "No, not at all, I’m sorry, I was just about to take a bath… And that's just the TV, for God's sake. Would you like to come in? Let me just get changed!”

“Oh! No, it’s all right, I don’t want to disturb you. I just stopped by to thank you for the ride.” She pushed the gift bag at him, suddenly feeling rather foolish. “I got you this. For old time’s sake.”

He opened the bag and pulled out the jar. His face lit up.

“Gold Blend! I wasn’t sure whether they even sold it anymore!” His smile turned wistful. “We sure felt fancy for drinking instant coffee back then, didn’t we? Simpler times…”

Sharon laughed. “We sure did! Well, I’ll see you around then.”

As she turned to go, Tony grabbed her sleeve. 

“Wait, I wanted to ask you. Are you free for a late night glass of wine later?” He smiled down at the jar of instant coffee in his hand. “Or maybe a cup of coffee?”

Sharon smiled. “How could I resist?”

***

She dressed up for the occasion. It felt good to have an occasion to dress up for. She didn’t exactly miss her former life -- all that socializing could get tiresome after a while -- but she still liked the opportunity to put on something nice and have the effort appreciated. Tony had obviously dressed up, too, she noticed when he led her into the living room. She liked his cologne. 

“Wine or coffee?”

“Well, you know I could never resist your coffee!”

She looked around the room while he went to get their drinks. The interior was far more modern than her place, an open floor plan with minimalist furniture, highlighting the artwork that covered the walls. Still, it looked comfortable and the couch he had led her to was soft. He put on the stereo.

“Tosca?” 

“Well, I wanted to demonstrate that I’ve mellowed in my old age. I’m able to appreciate a good aria every now and then.”

“You used to hate it when I played opera!”

“You used to play nothing else! Anyway, maybe I grew fond of it a little bit. After you left, I missed it. You forgot a record or two at my place, I might have hung on to it.”

She laughed. “Tony, the opera aficionado. Who’d have thought it?”

“Oh, don’t pretend I didn’t see that Rothko print in your living room! Admit it, you’ve developed a faible for modern art!”

Charles had given her that print after she’d been staring at it for too long at a fundraiser one day. At the time, she hadn’t told him why it had captured her. Now as then, there were some things better left unsaid.

“Why did we ever split up in the first place?” she asked instead.

“You know what, I’m not quite sure. Well, there was the thing with your tennis coach--” 

“Who was  _ just  _ a tennis coach, thank you very much!” 

“And then we kept arguing about work…” 

“To be fair, your schedule was insane! All those business trips to New York…” 

“Well, what about your charity luncheons? How many of those can one person possibly host?” 

“And then that Josephine woman turned up!” 

“What, who?” Tony looked genuinely surprised.

“Oh,  _ you  _ know! Josephine, or Jacqueline, or whatever her name was! Your twin sister you didn’t know about!”

“Oh, you mean  _ Jasmine_! She was just a fraud trying to scam me out of my inheritance. Lot of good that would have done her, with the stock market crash just a few months after!” 

Sharon leaned back and laughed. “It sounds a bit like we’ve been living out a rather dramatic storyline of EastEnders, doesn’t it?” 

He looked stunned for a second. “Now that you say so, it really does.” 

“I mean, how likely is it that you move next to the same person twice in thirty years?” Sharon shook her head. They fell quiet, both of them pondering the unlikelihood of the situation.

Sharon sipped her coffee. It tasted like coming home after a too-long vacation. “I’m glad you moved here, though.” 

“So am I.” He paused to try the coffee. “This coffee still tastes good, doesn’t it? Not as fancy as that De’Longhi in my kitchen, but there’s just something about it.”

She smiled and shifted a little closer to him on the couch. “It really does.”

**Author's Note:**

> I never saw the original Gold Blend commercials, but I discovered them when looking through the fandom list this Yuletide and they are delightful in their soapiness! You can see them all in the order they aired [here.](https://www.independent.ie/videos/nescafe-gold-blend-adverts-1980s-26794959.html)


End file.
